The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was on the sidelines during the presentation of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

Travis Kelce makes appearance at 2026 Super Bowl without Taylor Swift

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was on the sidelines during the presentation of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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February 8, 2026 7:48 p.m. ET

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Travis Kelce at the 2026 Super Bowl on Feb. 8. Credit:

Kevin Mazur/Getty

The Kansas City Chiefs might not be playing in the 2026 Super Bowl, but their star player Travis Kelce still made it to the big game.**

The 36-year-old tight end was all smiles as he stood on the sidelines during the presentation of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday. His fiancée, Taylor Swift, however, was not in attendance with him at the event. **

Kelce was up for the accolade, which honors an NFL player for "his excellence on and off the field," in 2020. This year, the award went to Washington Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner.

Travis Kelce attends the Super Bowl LX Pregame at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, 2026.

Kevin Mazur/Getty for Roc Nation

Swift is having a big week despite not popping up at the Super Bowl. On Friday, the 14-time Grammy winner dropped the music video for her song "Opalite," which was jam-packed with celebrity cameos. **

In the ‘90s-themed visual, Swift portrays a quiet loner who sprays herself with a love potion called Opalite that magically transports her into the home of a shy man played by *About Time *star Domhnall Gleeson. The pair, naturally, fall in love — and then perform a very cute dance routine.

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Swift explained in an Instagram post that she was inspired to make the video after Gleeson joked about wanting to be cast in one of hers when they were guests together on *The Graham Norton Show* last October. **

"He's Irish! He was joking! Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an *idea*," she wrote. "And so a week later he received an email script I'd written for the 'Opalite' video where he was playing the starring role."**

The video featured more than just Gleeson. Swift also invited the other stars on that episode of the show — Cillian Murphy, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lewis Capaldi, Greta Lee, and host Graham Norton — to make their own cameos.

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"I had this thought that it would be wild if all of our fellow guests on *The Graham Norton Show* that night, including Graham himself, could be a part of it too," she wrote. "Like a school group project but for adults and it isn't mandatory."**

She added, “To my delight, everyone from the show made the effort to time-travel back to the '90s with us and help with this video."

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in 2024.

Gotham/GC Images

Swift and Kelce began dating in 2023. In the years since, the pop superstar has attended the 2024 and 2025 Super Bowls to cheer on her beau.

Last October, the couple announced that they had gotten engaged in a joint Instagram post, captioning it, "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married."

** has reached out to a representative for Swift for comment about her absence from this year's Super Bowl.

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